Gilgamesh

Dance Party Giff-aganza

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

Adrian had his eyes closed before Lydia came to the pool, and he quietly repeated, "Nil desperandum. Bis vincit qui se vincit in victoria," to himself. He opened a single eye to looked at her as she splashed in the infinity pool. He sat with his legs and arms crossed, "No, it's difficult to meditate and calm myself while swimming. And it went... fine," he said, obviously still annoyed by what happened. "How did your exercising go?"

Dillon stretched her small frame upon standing up from her chair and over her desk. On the desk rested her metallic boots, "Geez, I think I've done all I could with these boots for now, but I could do more. I need more materials, but that means I need more money..."

She walked down the steps and caught Willow just entering the house. She saw him slide down the door with an odd look on his face. She walked up to him, "Are you alright, Willow?"

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

Dillon and Adrian waited for the hero games to officially end with an interview from both Silvermist and Glorious before reentering the stadium. The sidekick matches proceed the same way the hero matches did with a battle royale until only one stood.

From what Adrian could gather Silvermist's partner was telekinetic, like himself. However he was stronger and capable of lifting entire cars if he wanted to. "He could certainly be a problem if he were to get one of my swords."

Once the sidekick matches had ended Adrian and Dillon made their way back to the mansion, and Dillon hesitated to ask Adrian about what had previously transpired during the hero matches.

"Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I don't," he said sternly.

"Oh, alright..."

The rest of the walk was made in silence and eventually Adrian and Dillon walked back into the mansion, and Adrian continued walking toward the infinity pool.

"Are you going swimming?"

"No," he said as he sat down next to the cool waters and closed his eyes.

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

The tiger lunged for Barakiel again, but this time she was ready for him, and fueled by Adrian's words. She sidestepped the tiger's leaping trajectory, and as he soared past her her grip on her lance suddenly tightened, and electricity danced around it. She then swung the lance, the spearhead cutting into the tiger's side and blood flowed from the open wound.

The tiger visibly convulsed on the ground, both from the pain of the open cut in its side and from the electric shock. Suddenly its convulsions stopped before it finally laid still and Shifter slow transitioned back into his human form, defeated. Immediately the medics teleported in and out of the arena so quickly Barakiel hardly saw them come and go, taking Shifter with them.

Barakiel seemed to take a moment to breathe, but it wasn't long before that she was again assaulted. She narrowly parried a sword from slicing away at her body. Her attacker was Glorious, the second ranked hero of the junior class. Barakiel breathed heavily as she parried his series of sword strikes, and she even managed to catch him off guard. Glorious grimaced in pain as Barakiel's lance grazed his stomach. For a moment, Barakiel actually had the upper hand, until an blue energy blast hit her in the chest. She cried out in pain as she flew onto her back, the lance leaving her hand.

"You son of a bit-"

Before she could even get the words out a blue fist connected with her jaw, sending her crumpling to the ground.

"You shouldn't speak ill of your betters, girl," said Silvermist.

Adrian's hands tightened around the railing, the only thing between him and the ring, "Give in! You've lost, Alexis!"

"Fuck off, I can d-"

"Argh!" she cried out in pain as a foot connected with her side and a sword slashed her thigh.

Adrian obviously began to visibly become distraught at the spectacle in front of him. "Come on, dammit!"

"Adrian?" Dillon said, concerned about her partner. "Are you okay?"

"No! Look at her! Why isn't anyone calling this?! She's outnumbered! She obviously can't fight anymore!"

"I-I don't know. But why are you so concerned about her?"

Adrian struggled to find the right words, "Because this is unfair!"

Dillon looked up to him and thought, "I didn't think Adrian to be the type to care about fairness. Or care about anything, really."

Just then Adrian slowly began to levitate off the ground, seemingly to enter the ring.

"Adrian, stop! You could get in serious trouble for this!"

"You think I care?"

"I thought you did, at least! Listen, if you charge in there you will face serious consequences, like maybe losing your rank. Adrian, this is a moment where we could simply watch Silvermist give away all her powers."

Adrian gripped the railing even harder now, "So I'm just suppose to allow her to suffer?"

"You knew this is, what it would be like the moment you stepped in. So did she," Dillon said upon nodding toward Barakiel. Dillon placed her hand on his as she rubbed his back comfortingly. "You can't do anything about it now. Just trust that they'll take her out soon," she said, close to his ear.

Adrian realized how he was acting, how he was losing it, and breathed in deeply and then out. "Keep calm, keep calm."

"Thanks," he said to her as he looked back into the arena. For a few painful minutes the torture continued until the match was finally called and Glorious didn't challenge Silvermist and the junior matches were over.

Adrian took a final look at Silvermist, his eyes ablaze with hatred and anger, "I'm going to make her suffer."

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

"I'll end this quickly," Barakiel said to her opponent who only offered a low, intimidating growl in response.

Barakiel took a step back and shifter took a step forward, following her. Barakiel closed her right fist, and the lightning ball was gone, instead arcs of lightning traced along her body, sending the hair on her arms upright. Her grip around her lance also notably tightened and arcs of lightning also engulfed it.

"She can't get close to it," Adrian thought. "Getting close to a full sized tiger is suicide. It'll also outrun and overpower her. Instead she'll have to discourage it from attacking her outright physically, which is all it can do. That's smart, Alexis."

"I don't think that'll work," Dillon said, much to Adrian's surprise.

"You know what she's doing?" he asked, interested in what Dillon was thinking.

"Yeah, but Shifter, when he morphs into an animal, doesn't think like himself. Instead he thinks like the animal he becomes. So an animal probably won't even equate that lightning arcing across a person's body means injury. He's also known to starve himself days before the matches so that his animal side is much more hungry and vicious. An intelligent animal may be able to discern that lightning means injury, but would one do so if it was famished?"

A grinned formed across Adrian's face as he looked down at Dillon, impressed by her assessment. "Not bad."

Dillon looked back up to him with a smile, "Thanks."

The two exchanged a look of appreciation for the other before turning their attention back to the fight at hand. "It'll probably go for the throat," thought Adrian. "That's certain death, lightning covering your body or not. Even if it shocks the tiger, that'll mean it'll have to have sunken its teeth into her flesh first. Should I tell her? She probably won't like it if I interfere, but if I don't tell her she could lose. Or worse."

Before Adrian could make a decision the tiger pounced for Barakiel with its open maw, and she dove to the left, and for that brief moment, the lightning traversing her body stopped. Her face contorted in surprise, seemingly shocked about what had just transpired. "So she really doesn't know. Foolish girl. She must've charged into this without knowing about her opponent. I need to do something. Now."

The tiger honed in on Barakiel and with a swipe Adrian's eyes narrowed, "Alexis," thought Adrian, and immediately Barakiel's eyes snapped toward Adrian then back to the tiger in front of her.

"Shut up and butt out," she thought back.

"Listen, Shifter isn't himself right now. When he transforms into an animal he not only takes its form, but also assumes its actions and thought processes. Meaning right now, you aren't facing a human who's using reason. You're facing an animal. A hungry one. Give up now before you get yourself killed, because you're in over your head."

"You're underestimating me," she thought angrily to him.

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

Before Adrian could even inquire about what Lydia meant she was gone in a flash.

"What the hell is she talking about?" he asked Dillon as he walked out the front door and toward the school.

"You, me, and Steelia took a swim in the jacuzzi, and you took off your shirt."

"Are you serious? Is that all I took off?" he said, suddenly self conscious of the scars lining his body.

"Yeah."

"Did I do or say anything else?"

"You shouldn't worry about it. You were just drunk. You mentioned something about ghost samurai though."

"I told you about that?"

"Yeah, you di- Wait, what?"

"What, what?"

"I-I mean you said that as if there's something behind it!"

Adrian remained silent, ignoring her statement.

"So there is!" she surmised. "Tell me!"

"No."

"How the hell did you fight samurai?! Ghost samurai, actually!"

Adrian sighed, "I'm never drinking again."

Eventually, after much poking and prodding from Dillon, the pair found themselves at S.U.P.E.S. The halls, per usual around this time, were devoid of any form of life, and instead the subtle sound of crowds cheering could be heard below them. "It has already begun," thought Adrian as he quickly walked off toward the hero arena.

"So," began Dillon. "I'm guessing we're here to do a little recon, right?"

"...Yeah," he said over his shoulder before descending the steps down into the stands. "I need to see this for myself." Immediately upon entering Adrian and Dillon received dirty looks and quieted insults from the other heroes. Dillon shot them dirty looks and insults in exchange, but Adrian seemed to ignore them and focus his attention to the happenings within the arena. Although the cheering crowd certainly didn't help his splitting headache from his hangover.

To the right of the arena two heroes stood side by side instead of against one another. One was a woman who stood at 5'5 with platinum blonde hair, blue eyes, and a pretty face with a brimming smile. However, the most obviously extraordinary thing about her was that she had large, snow white wings like that of a fairy. When they moved even slightly sprinkles of visible blue energy like that of glitter fell from her wings.

"She looks like a doll," Adrian remarked.

"Dolls creep me out," Dillon said as she shuddered. "They call her 'Silvermist.'"

The other hero that stood to Silvermist's left was a seemingly normal boy, with short, brunette hair and well toned muscles. His belt was lined with numerous gadgets and on his back layed a sword.

"Glorious. No powers of his own, but a good swordsman."

Both heroes seemed to completely ignore one another, and instead watched for the fight about to unfold to the left of the arena. Adrian turned his head hastily to see what they were watching and his eyes narrowed at one of the other heroes in the ring.

It was a girl. She was only slightly lighter than Adrian in skin tone with dark brown eyes, athletic build, and shoulder length hair. She held a lance in her left hand, and a ball of crackling lightning in her right.

"Her alias i-"

"Barakiel, ranked four of the junior hero class," Adrian finished.

Dillon looked mildly surprised that he actually knew who the girl was.

Adrian's eyes seemed to rest on her for a longer period before turning away to look at her opponent, something Dillon noticed.

Standing across from her was a seemingly ordinary boy who was stripping himself of his clothing. Before he was nearly nude his body seamlessly transitioned from that of a man to a large Bengal tiger.

"Shifter," Dillon said.

"Ranked third, I'm guessing?"

"Yeah, this won't be pretty."

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

Adrian's eyes fluttered open and immediately his head began throbbing with pain. "Fuckin' shit," he said as he sat up from his bed, but that soon sent the entire room spinning. "I should just lay here, not like i have classes," suddenly Adrian realized something. "Ugh, damn. I can't stay here. The junior matches are today."

Adrian rose from his bed, only sending the room into another spiral, and he placed his hand against the wall of the room to steady himself. "What the hell happened last night?" Adrian looked down at what he was wearing and saw that he had a clean change of pants, but no shirt. "What in the all mighty fuck?"

Finding the luggage that Benjamin's men packed, Adrian put on a black t-shirt, and set out to find out what happened. He clutched his head in pain with one hand while he balanced himself against the wall with the other. Adrian made his way to Dillon's room, and rapped against the door once, then twice, slightly hard and faster. Dillon opened the door wearing a white tank top and blue jeans.

"Hey you," she said with a grin. "Glad to see you're up."

"I'm not. It feels like a professional boxer punched me in the face without his glove."

"That would hurt, wouldn't it? I can get you some water, if you like."

"Please and thank you."

"Comin' right up! If you want to chill in my room, you can!" she said behind her before running off downstairs.

Adrian walked into her room to find a large, spacious desk in her very extravagant and well lavished room. On the desk laid two yellow metallic gauntlets with various lines carved into it them that glowed a bright blue. In the bottom of them was a plug that connected the gauntlets to an electrical outlet in the wall.

"They're made of Titanium alloys, both strong and flexible. They need a lot of energy in order to work," Dillon said behind him. Adrian looked behind to find a grinning Dillon with both water and orange juice in her hand. "Benjamin's electrical bill will probably go through the roof now. Although, I suppose he won't even notice. Or care."

"How long can you use it for? Not long. Ten minutes tops," she said before handing the water to him, which he eagerly taked.

"Ten minutes? Is that all?"

"Yep."

"What other armors do you have?

I have boots, but they're a work in progress."

"What can they do?"

"Look at you! All interested in me now..."

"I'm slightly impressed with what you've got going here."

"Are you going to tell me a bit about yourself now?"

"Unlikely," he said as he finished the water and took the orange juice from her hand and walked out the room.

"H-hey!" she called and followed after him. "Where are you going?"

"The junior matches are soon and I must hurry."

"The junior matches? Oh, you're going for a little info on the competition, right?"

"...That is correct," he said as they descended the stairs. He placed the orange juice glass on the counter as he passed it.

"Well, I don't have anything interesting to do right now. After all, we're suppose to be training for the exit exam. Shouldn't you be?"

"This is important."

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

A

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

"Oh we will," he said as he waved her bye.

"No, we won't, actually," Dillon said as she got out of the jacuzzi. "I'm tired too and I'm not leaving you here."

"You're so good to me," he said as he clumsily attempted to get out of the jacuzzi, but was halted by Dillon.

"I'd like to think you'd do the same for me," she said before helping him out of the jacuzzi, and allowed him to lean on her again.

She managed to grab a towel and dry Adrian off, and carefully help him up the stairs without breaking his neck.

Always Enemies ((FMN && Gilgamesh))

"Are you all work and no play, Lydia? Even I can get my kicks out of pissing you off and fighting. Maybe you should get a dick."

"That's what I've been trying to tell him, that the exit exam isn't to be underestimated, but my efforts fall on deaf ears."

"Psh," Adrian waved away their concerns. "I'll kick all their asses here to the moon and back. They don't stand a chance.

"You're too cocky," sighed Dillon.

"But rightfully so!